Kelly v. Kelly (Nebraska 2021)

Child support orders set under the guidelines are presumably correct. The divorce decree in this case ordered the father to pay child support. The amount included an upward deviation to account for the father’s share of expenses. The father was also ordered to provide health insurance. In 2018, The father lost his job, and the mother began providing health insurance. The mother filed to modify custody and support and the father counterclaimed. In the order for modification, specific to support, the trial court used the father’s proposed calculation to set support, which used the mother’s 2018 income rather than her current, actual income. The order discontinued the deviation and set out a detailed expense sharing plan. The trial court declined to give the mother retroactive credit for her provision of health insurance. The mother appealed. The appellate court reversed the child support amount and remanded for recalculation using the mother’s actual income. The appellate court affirmed the provisions regarding the retroactive support and the deviation. The higher amount of child support mother received balanced out her payment of the health insurance premiums. The trial court also didn’t abuse its discretion in discontinuing the upward deviation. Per the guidelines, the court included a specific plan for expense sharing.